-Pope Gregory the Great

Image Loss is Information Loss

The best way to present images on the Internet is to make images equal to textual information. Normally users like images that are easier to access and which provide clever navigation. How these graphic elements are presented and how they function is important. Good image presentation on the Internet entails presenting the images as information.

If users turn off these images, they will lose information. Users also will lose the relationship between images and text.


Task: Effective Web Design

"Effective web design is the result of knowing how to take advantage of the computer screen and how to best use of graphic, colours, fonts, layout and navigational queues to get the message across effectively."
-Brendon Landsdowne
brendonl@weblink.com.au

ISSUES:

Bandwidth-small file size  Performance-good quality image


a. Graphic

Image Categories

There are two major categories on internet imagery:
1. image thet are photographic or have gradations, and
2. flat-colour illustration.

Image File Size

Large image maps and logos dominate the whole web page and look awkward. Small logos, icons and images should be more interesting and efficient than the big ones. Large graphic composition can be created from the combination of smaller images.

Image Compression

Currently, for general purpose graphics, the choice is between two internet standards:

1. GIF (Graphic Interchange Format)
Recommended and good for artwork and line art graphics, but GIF Format provides slightly bigger file sizes.
Colour Depth Support:1-to 8-bit (256 colours)

2. JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group)
Ideal for photographic quality images. It provides smaller file sizes.
Colour Depth Support:1-to 24-bit (16.7 million colours)


b. Colour

Background Colour

Darker versus brighter colour: Background colour can be generated from the colour pallette or from a background image. Brighter colour for the background work well for a textual site. It is excellent to emphasis the purpose readability. Darker backgound colour is good for artwork or a porfolio site!

Text Colour

1. white text on black background is very hard on the eyes.
2. dark colours on light backgrounds print better and read better on the screen
3. there should be contrast between the text colour and the background

Table Cell Colour

Colour in the cells of a table is can be used instead of a bar graphic which previously could only be created as an image.


c. Fonts

1. Sans Serif typefaces are more legible on screen
2. Serif fonts can have jugged edges
3. Italic font styles should be avoided.They are hard to read on screen.


d. Layout

Consider a consistant layout throughout the website
Maintain the readability and comprehension on every page.

Typical kinds of pages:

1. Home page
2. Contents page
3. Section page
4. Input and result (the form)